Garden Club

25 June, 2015

This year’s Chelsea was very interesting. For once I agreed with the judges and thought the Chatsworth garden was the best I had ever seen. Superb wild plants nestling among rocks. Some commentators said that the wild display was not a garden but you know that if it had been a Provencal hillside they would have loved it. A new addition was that the growers were allowed to sell plants in blister packs. The first time I have been able to buy plants at Chelsea and it proved a little expensive. I also bought delphinium seed and have germinated it all on kitchen paper in a dark box. ...

25 June, 2015

Saturday 4th July – Medstead Village Hall
This is an Open Show and everyone is welcome to exhibit in the following show divisions: Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers, Produce, Floral Art. Classes for children also. ...

24 May, 2015

What a marvellous spring. The best blossom I have seen for years. I love the big magnolias, cherries and camellias in the garden but if you have a smaller plot you need to find something else. There are small magnolias. Magonlia stellata with white star shaped flowers will make 5 ft, while Susan a deep pink will make 6ft. Both easily available. For Cherries you can go very small with prunus incisa Kojo no mai to 3 ft or pick a columnar shape of tree such as Amanogawa with pale pink flowers. Remember cherry roots spread far near the surface. ...

24 May, 2015

The Bentworth Garden Club will be visiting a lovely garden in June. We are going to Colmore House at Colmore at 7.0 on Monday 22 June. This is a fascinating garden with new features being constantly added. Simon de Zoete the owner will show us round with a glass of wine and the help of his gardener Peter Neave who used to live in Bentworth. ...

24 May, 2015

2:15 to 3:30pm, Medstead Village Hall
This is an Open Show and everyone is welcome to exhibit in the following Show divisions:
Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers, Produce, Floral Art. Classes for children also. ...

26 April, 2015

It’s so easy to blame yourself when something goes wrong in the garden but do not be so hard on yourself. This year mine and many other people’s daffodils have come up blind. Not a flower to be seen. If you looked up the problem you would be told to dig them up and divide them or look for narcissus fly. Ignore all this, give them a few handfuls of Growmore fertiliser, let the leaves die down and next year they will be fine. We have daffodils that have been in the same place for over thirty years. In that time we have had two or three blind years but they always come up trumps the next year. It is just that last year did not produce ideal growing conditions for them. Some have done well just to confuse you. Just tell yourself it is not your fault. ...

29 March, 2015

Suddenly the garden is springing into life. The borders start to have green shoots and the weeds start growing. Are your borders the sort that go to sleep for the winter and you only look at them when growth starts. There is no need for borders to look dead all winter. In a small garden you cannot waste the space on them. There are lots of plants that fit in well with the ordinary herbaceous border that are evergreen and will keep the border interesting in winter. Think of all those collections they sell to go in winter pots. Six plants for peanuts. Here you will find skimmias, euonymous and pieris. You may not want these as full grown shrubs, but until they get too big they will dress your borders. The smaller hebes and the winter heathers (erica carnea) will all look good. Then you have the sages in various colours and lavender and the cotton lavender (santolina) in grey or gold. ...

29 March, 2015

Bentworth Garden Club will host a plant sale at Bentworth Jubilee Hall on Saturday 2nd May from 10:00am until 12:00pm. There will be free coffee, tea and Stella’s lemon drizzle cake, so come early! ...

04 March, 2015

Our first meeting of the year will be on Mon 16 March at 7-30. We have been unable to book the Hall for our meetings this year so we will meet at my house Bentworth Hall West. We will start with the AGM, so let me know if there is any matter you wish to raise. We then have John Wood the head gardener from Hinton Ampner, talking about the garden there. He has some super pictures, because as he says he lives on site and can wander out in his pyjamas a 6-0 in the morning to get the best picture. Because you will not be able to walk to the meeting, perhaps you might like to get together and car share. ...

20 February, 2015

Bentworth garden club had a very successful willow weaving day in January, with snow lying outside we all worked in the warm at Bentworth Hall. The range and quality of the work was excellent, and a good time was had by all. ...